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"Soo "Someone has to stop first"

"Let it be the with the effort not to fall into a full wolf snarl His fury was palpable

"We can only decide for ourselves At least we can stop the assaults long enough to think of another way, instead ofit worse, alorse"

"We are destroyed, Karou It can’t get any worse"

"It can It has The Hinterht now, and hoill it be answered? It can get worse until there is no one left Or ain Akiva’s words caain Karou spoke the "Eretz will have chi on e do now"

And that hen the Shadows That Live spread their silent wings and lifted with the grace of dreahthtly at Karou’s side They didn’t speak; they rarely did Their stance was clear: elegant heads held high, eyes defiant Karou was breathless with a sudden swell of eris, Bashees, Issa Who else? She looked to the rest Most seeh, Karou saw malice totheain be touched by hope In others, she saw fear

In too h; Karou willed her to take a step She was on the verge E at Karou, and she rerove in another life She saw that savagery in hi nostrils and wild eyes, but then… she saw him pull it back She witnessed the moment that he , and effort, put his mask back in place It orse than hate or fear, this lie of e lie "My lady Karou," he said "You ht No

"I will take it under consideration," he said "Of course We’ll consider all possibilities, including--aslean the souls fro By giving her this sreater one Now none of the other soldiers need gather their courage to come to her side, and their relief was profound She could see it in their posture, in their faces They didn’t want to choose They didn’t want to choose her How eneral Bast wouldn’t even look at her Cowards, she thought, starting to shake as all of her pue collapsed into frustration Could they really believe that the White Wolf would consider ending--or even pausing--in his crusade? Victory and vengeance He would have to tear his gonfalon down,of the Warlord’s syrowth How perfect, and how out of reach

And now, so quickly, the rest of these soldiers were out of her reach, too Thiago was accusto power, and she was so very not Effortlessly he took back what little she had gained and turned the ar the buried souls fro himself was the first to volunteer He went forward, avid, and others followed hiotten Issa took her hand and squeezed it, co her shared dismay, while the Shadows That Live melted away before she could even thank them, and soon the direct heat of the sun drove most of them from the court

The day passed away in this aty Karou and Issa watched and listened, and Thiago did entirely appear to be doing what he had said he would: considering all possibilities, such as how they ht conduct an excavation in eneht do in the south to help more chimaera reach the Hintermost It was exactly what Karou wanted, and she could barely breathe, because she kneas just another aaht fell, and she found out

68

SIRITHAR

Akiva followed Byon through one last set of doors Fragrance and hureeted them; a billow of steam obscured Akiva’s vision at the moment he crossed the threshold, and he heard his father’s voice before he saw him

"Ah, Lord Bastard You honor us with your presence" It was a powerful voice, honed on bygone battlefields crying death to the beasts Whatever he was now, Joram had been a warrior once

And he looked it Akiva bowed; he was rising as the steam cleared, and saw that they were in a bath, and that Jora tiles, hale and solid, his flesh rouged by heat, surrounded by the small army of servants apparently required to purify his royal person A girl tipped a pitcher of water over his head and he closed his eyes Another was on her knees, washing him with a lather as thick as whipped crea many different ways, and in none of theht If he did, he would meet me clothed and armed "My lord emperor," he said, "the honor is all mine"

"Our honor, your honor," drawled Joram "Whatever shall we do with such an excess of honor?"

"We could always hang it from the Westway," said another voice, and Akiva didn’t have to see that cut-in-half face to knohose it was Sunk back on a tiled bath bench in a pose of informality that he alone would dare in the emperor’s presence, was Jael Well, that was a convenience, as, of course, Jael could not be allowed to live any more than Joram could He, blessedly, was fully clad "If only there was roohter ruave their faces a quick scan None lounged like Jael, but all seeh at their ease that he took these bath-time councils to be a common occurrence

Joram’s mouth carved a sibbet," he said

Was it a threat? Akiva didn’t think so Jora at him; he closed his eyes and tipped back his head for another sluice from his attendant’s pitcher, after which he shook his head hard, spraying water Na near as ever, both blinked at the spray but elsewise uards--brothers--were said to be deadly fighters They were Akiva’s first concern Silverswords were present, as well, two pairs each along facing walls: eight Breakblades with condensation fogging their silver arone limp in the steam He wasn’t worried about them

In fact, as his father stepped out of the shallow pool of lather, away fro a robe, Akiva found his worry draining away He , but in all ways, here was his optiuard presence in a contained environment, a limited number of witnesses whose ould be taken on faith, and,in the eyes of these seraphilassy-eyed with boredoe, with some indefinable flaccidness about the set of his features that spoke of weakness Akiva knew that Japheth was no paragon He would be better than his father; that hat us Hellas, head of the ei, said to have the emperor’s ear His look of heavy, half-lidded condescension was all Akiva needed to see to know that his own ic remained his secret A few other faces were unfahtiness